The Watering Hole, Saturday, August 22nd, 2015: (T)Rump Droppings

“Hillary’s record as secretary of state was a disaster…She was in favor, totally in favor, of the Iraq War, which is obviously not a good soundbite.”

Immigration word salad:

“You know, this country is so politically correct. Nobody wants to take a stance on anything…Now they like to use the word undocumented because it’s more political — I don’t use that word. They’re illegal immigrants. They came over illegally. Some are wonderful people, and they’ve been here for a while. They’ve got to go out. They’ve got to leave…These people — the really good ones, and we have some great ones — we’re going to try and expedite so they can come back. But they’re going to come back legally.”[According to the article, Trump “said he wouldn’t need to amend the Constitution to do it.”]

“No. 1, the 14th Amendment is very questionable as to whether or not somebody can come over, have a baby and immediately that baby is a citizen. OK?”

“Amending is too big a deal. It’s going to take — it’ll be two terms. I’d be in my second term or my eighth year by the time — assuming everything went smoothly. … I believe you can win it legally.”

According to the article, “He said people can’t be allowed to just “walk over” the border to give birth.”

“You have people on the border and in one day they walk over, have a baby. And now all of a sudden we’re supposed to pay the baby … medical, Social Security…”

“Trump defended his comments [on getting his military strategy by watching current and retired generals on TV]…saying it allows him to get a lot of advice quickly.”

“I watch your show. And I watch other shows. And you have the best generals, the best everything … frankly probably better than I could get,” Trump said. “What do I know? I’m a man that made a great fortune. I’m gonna make our country rich and I’m gonna make our country great.”

“I think that I would be a great sleeper on the military, because people wouldn’t think it’s my strength, but I think it would be one of my strengths…One of the things I noticed in your poll, I came out way, way ahead of everybody on the economy, and a lot of people weren’t surprised to see that, but I also came way out ahead on the military … and ISIS. I would build up our military so strong, so powerful that nobody will mess with us.”

Trump was asked “how he would respond if Pope Francis told him that capitalism can be toxic.”

“I’d say, ‘ISIS wants to get you. You know that ISIS wants to go in and take over the Vatican? You have heard that. You know, that’s a dream of theirs, to go into Italy.”

“I’m gonna have to scare the Pope because it’s the only thing…The Pope, I hope, can only be scared by God. But the truth is — you know, if you look at what’s going on — they better hope that capitalism works, because it’s the only thing we have right now. And it’s a great thing when it works properly.”

[According to the CNN article, Trump “said his wife and daughter both encouraged him to talk more about women’s issues after the (Jeb Bush “I’m not sure we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues”) controversy.”

“They said, you know, ‘The one thing you should do is talk a little bit about women’s health issues, because you’re so good on it, [y]ou know about it. And you cherish women. You want to protect women’. … I will protect women more than anybody.”]

Trump should “write” one more book, one which explains his politics, his plans for the country, methods, ideas etc. My suggestion for one of the descriptive paragraphs would read something like this, a summation of his basic operational modus operandi:

“It makes no difference whatever whether they laugh at us or revile us, whether they represent us as clowns or criminals; the main thing is that they mention us, that they concern themselves with us again and again, and that we gradually in the eyes of the workers themselves appear to be the only power that anyone reckons with at the moment. …”

My suggestion for his book title is one that’s been used before, one that was the title of the book from which the above quote was taken. I assume, however, that the copyright has run out so maybe he could use it??

Mein Kampf

It perfectly suits Trump by pretty much describing his “ideas,” his philosophies in re the military, our currency/money, dismissal of a selected minority, all along with his slogan to make our country “great again.”

“We had a carefully designed policy for many years to allow as immigrants into the United States only those people from countries that have a Christian-principled culture,” he said. “We may have had different denominations, it wasn’t a denominational thing, it was basically an understanding that if you didn’t begin with God and the Book of Genesis, ‘all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to secure these rights governments are instituted among men.’ If we didn’t have people who understood that or who wanted that and were willing to receive that, they could not become citizens of the United States. We don’t ask that of anyone anymore.”

As we used to say to describe crazy shit in Minnesota when we were kids,Oof Dah MEE Dah!

Back in the early 80s, my partners and I grew seedless watermelons, well before they were ‘standard.’ Our harvesting crew was run by a friend, a Mexican-born former migrant who had settled in AZ and become a labor crew manager; he worked for a number of growers and saw to the harvest of various vegetable crops. The bulk of the crews he hired and supervised were “illegals,” and the Border Patrol was a regular visitor in the “papers please” context. Many times the bulk of a crew would be hauled away and down to Nogales for deportation. That was the bad news. The good news was that by the next morning, they’d mostly be back. They were, each and all, hard working, efficient, honest, and friendly. All they wanted to do was their job so they could send their money back to their families in Mexico. Great people, every one of them.

One day we had already arranged to ship a truckload out, and they were there at first light in the morning, had the load cut and ready to load into the field trucks to haul to the semi-loading area. The Border Patrol suddenly popped up and hauled them all off. We were left with 50,000 lbs of melons cut and ready in the field with no crew. So Sergio, the foreman, hurried down to Gila Bend and hired some locals, mostly white guys hanging around waiting for a little work. He brought them back to the ranch. They managed to get the three field trucks loaded, but when we were going to transfer those loads to the semi, they said nope, too tired. So they sat on their asses in the shade while Sergio, us three partners, and a couple of other volunteers loaded the 50,000 lbs — one melon at a time — and sent the semi on its way. Sergio paid the local bums about half of what they’d have made had they done the job they were hired for, then hauled them back to Gila Bend in the back of his pickup.

The next morning our “illegal” crew was back, much to our collective relief.

Trump has NO CLUE how friggin’ wrong he is. I know he doesn’t give a shit, but I do, as does anyone who has ever worked with “illegals.” They’re fine people, folks who make bigoted Republican assholes look just like the snakes in the grass that they are. Trump and the clown car occupants included.

We even made arrangements with the workers that if they got deported and couldn’t get back, we would send their money to their address in Mexico. IIRC, we had to do that two or three times. But they were worth it in every imaginable way.